Subject: GRIM2 down, out of service

From: Bruce Gillespie

Submitted: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 11:46:09 -0700

Message number: 719 (previous: 718, next: 720 up: Index)

All:

GRIM2 has failed for the second time in little more than a month. 
The failure mode is the same (or similar to) the "missing quadrant" 
symptom that has been intermittently manifest off-and-on now for 
several years.  Our ability at the site to effect "swap and pray" 
remedies for this mysterious problem is pretty much exhausted.

We have asked Al Harper and the engineering staff at Yerkes to work 
with us to find out the root cause of these failures.  We hope to 
have more to report on the the diagnosis and prognosis of the 
instrument in the coming days or weeks.  In the meantime, we are 
taking GRIM2 out of service until further notice.  PIs of near-term 
GRIM2-using programs are being notified separately.

If you are a GRIM2 user during November, you may consider using other 
instruments for TAC-approved observing.  If you cannot use your time 
with another instrument, please contact your institutional scheduler, 
who should then contact Ed Turner with an alternative program.  Users 
with GRIM2 time in December should not yet replan their programs, but 
should stay alert for upcoming announcements.

Bruce Gillespie (for Ed Turner)

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